Adventure Gamers Interview

What do you think makes a Sierra game different from a LucasArts game? Will the stylistic differences affect how you approach the King’s Quest license?

Dave Grossman" said:

The danger in a Sierra game always seemed more palpable and immediate than in one from LucasArts. Partly this was because LucasArts games took great pains to reassure you that you wouldn’t die and couldn’t do anything wrong, while Sierra games took a certain delight in all of the ways that you might die or otherwise fail that was part of the fun. Lucas games were largely exploratory, while Sierra titles had more of an element of challenge, including a more distinctly puzzley focus, situations with time constraints, and so on.

A good trick for us will be to preserve those elements of peril, challenge, and yes, death, but also hopefully do something to address the frustration that unfortunately tended to come along with them all too often and alienate some of the players (maybe if the game just saves and hits “restore” for you automatically that will be enough).

Despite this interview (meant to calm raging fans for PR) Telltale is still going to have to prove itself to me that it can do KQ justice than just making promises and vague statements. At least they're acknowledging death. I don't understand how he thought LucasArts games were more exploratory than Sierra games, though. Maybe just because of the fact that you can't fail in a LucasArts games means to them that there's more of a chance for exploration? I don't know.

Maybe he means in reference to the ability to "explore" in those games without having to worry as much about dying if you fell 4 feet off a flight of stairs or something. Personally the lack of "pressure" in those games is one of the reasons I always liked the Sierra brands better.

Yeah, that's what I was trying to say. And I agree. The lack of pressure made LucasArts games boring sometimes where a Sierra game wouldn't be. At least you could do something to entertain yourself by finding different ways to die if you were stuck! lol In a LucasArts game if you're stuck....you're....stuck.

Actually, the point was to get answers to questions that tons of fans are curious about. Not every King's Quest fan is enraged that Telltale has this license. A lot of people are actually excited about it.

It sounds good regarding the death scenes, but I worry due to LucasArts being identified more with exploration here.

I didn't take his answer to mean that exploration only exists in LucasArts games, just that in those games you can explore without an element of danger. In the Sierra games you also explore, but are aware that danger could be around any corner (which of course led to "save early, save often"!) It's a different type of exploration.

I personally am not a fan of death scenes and wouldn't mind if they went away completely... but I don't expect Telltale's KQ games to submit to my personal list of demands, no matter how big a fan I am. The most important takeaway here is that Telltale's listening to the audience's feedback (some of which is conflicting) and taking it into account during the design process.

It is as I expected it would be. I never had doubt that TTG wanted to do the series justice, and keep it true to the spirit of the rest of the games. I wouldn't mind a retry button after deaths. In the interview, Grossman mentioned that employees at Telltale are fans of other Sierra series I hope this means a potential Space Quest some day. I also liked how he said he wants the game to fit in the King's Quest canon.

AG: Have you been following The Silver Lining and AGD Interactive’s King’s Quest remakes? Did these projects play any role in your decision to make new KQ games?

DG: Yes—in fact Cesar Bittar from Phoenix Online used to work here at Telltale, which is how I personally got my first look at The Silver Lining. The fact that the King’s Quest community is enthusiastic enough to put in the kind of time and sweat that it takes to make games like that gives me a lot of confidence that a new KQ title is a good idea. Of course, I also know that that audience will have high and specific expectations that we’ll have to live up to. But what else is new?

I'm personally worried about what they'll do to "do something to address the frustration that unfortunately tended to come along with [the sense of peril, challenge, death] all too often and alienate some of the players".

I'm mostly concerned about the art style. I know it won't look like an old sierra game, but I think it needs some serious Sierra touches that we haven't really seen from TT before. I think dieing is important but it shouldn't be as brutal as it was in the old days, it needs to be a lot less detrimental to your progress if your not constantly saving. Replaying an hour or more of a game because you screwed up is not fun. I don't care if I die on every screen, it just needs (and I think it will) a "retry" button.